Loans and Living expenses

Paying for College
1

<p>How much will a typical financial aid package include for living expenses above the cost of attendance for junior year? I'm going to Rutgers which is 12k CoA, but I figure I'd need at least 8k to survive over those 9 months living off-campus. I think NJ TAG and Pell "should" cover tuition at this point, so what kind of maximums are possible between Perkins and Stafford? I'd like to avoid Work Study as it'll cut into study time. I'm independant with decent credit (+720 fico) so is +8k in loans possible ?</p>

2

<p>You can’t borrow above the COA. Financial aid is based on the school’s COA, which includes allowances for room and board. Schools may have a COA for students living off campus. It may be the same as for living on campus or it may be different. You would need to check with your school. There is no ‘typical’. it depends on the school nd their COA which varies from school to school.</p>

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<p>is there any way to decline work study and take more loans ?</p>

4

<p>You can decline W/S, but there’s no guarantee you can get more loans from the school.</p>

<p>Secondary education loans will often loan COA +10%</p>

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<p>secondary loans = stafford loans ?</p>

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<p>Why would anyone decline work-study?? The federal govt is paying you to go to school.</p>

<p>Hello, it’s essentially “free money.” You have to work but it’s better than loans.</p>

7

<p>Sorry, it’s a term I use in our practice.</p>

<p>By secondary, I mean those loans that do not come through the schools or feds. SallieMae, NelNet, Wells Fargo, etc.</p>

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<p>I think if you take out a private loan above the COA your school can reduce your federal aid by the same amount, so it is kind of counter productive.</p>

<p>The amount of living expenses allotted depends on the school and the area. It will never be enough, though. It is based on what it costs to live in the dorms and eat in the cafeteria. If you are going to live off campus it will be lower (yes, lower).</p>

<p>Refusing work study makes no sense. Not only does work study give you tax-free income, but it gives you something to put on your resume. The jobs are not that difficult and you will have an opportunity to work in a job somewhat related to your major.</p>

9

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Not necessarily. It depends on the school. My daughter’s school the COA for on and off campus is exactly the same unless you live with parents , in which case it is lower. At my son’s school it is actually a tiny bit higher for living off campus (unless with parents, then it is lower).</p>

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Work study is *not *tax free. For federal and state tax it is taxable income just like income from any job and scholarships in excess of tuition/fees. The benefit is that you do not pay FICA on it (which is around 6.7%) and it is not held against you in the EFC calculation. Plus it makes getting on campus jobs much easier and can get you involved in some areas of interest.</p>

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Ooops, that’s what I meant I just wasn’t thinking. Right, it doesn’t effect your EFC.</p>

11

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That’s cool. The schools I have been looking at the living expenses are about $1000 - $1500 lower if you live off campus (which makes no sense to me because these are all schools in CA).</p>

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<p>Rutgers website doesn’t provide an off-campus, non-commuter number specifically but estimates room and board at $9,942. So, it shouldn’t be a problem getting a combination of Stafford and other loans certified for $8K if they use the resident COA of $21,504. You can take a max of $7,500 Stafford/year (up to $5,500 can be subsidized) for your junior and senior years. Perkins loans are up to the amount that Rutgers offers you - technically the max is $5,500/year but each school only has a limited pool of these loan funds to work with so they typically offer a lower amount. They do offer better terms, so take what you can get!</p>

<p>[Rutgers</a> | Rutgers Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.rutgers.edu/Costs/TuitionAndFees.aspx]Rutgers”>http://admissions.rutgers.edu/Costs/TuitionAndFees.aspx)</p>

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<p>Unless something has changed, I am pretty sure the maximum Perkins for an undergrad is $4000. However my understanding is that not many people get that even is they have need. It is not like the Stafford where every eligible student can get the amount they are eligible for. It has *very *limited funding. Kelsmom posted a good explanation about Perkins loan a while back - I actually had no idea why they were so limited until she explained it. I will see if I can find it.</p>

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<p>from
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/694608-why-perkins-loan-some-colleges-but-not-others.html?highlight=Perkins[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/694608-why-perkins-loan-some-colleges-but-not-others.html?highlight=Perkins&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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15

<p>SCM, I thought Perkins was $4K max too but finaid.org now says this:</p>

<p>The Perkins Loan is awarded to undergraduate and graduate students with exceptional financial need. This is a campus-based loan program, with the school acting as the lender using a limited pool of funds provided by the federal government. (The Perkins Loan is the best student loan available. It is a subsidized loan, with the interest being paid by the federal government during the in-school and 9-month grace periods. There are no origination or default fees, and the interest rate is 5%. There is a 10-year repayment period.</p>

<p>The amount of Perkins Loan you receive is determined by your school’s financial aid office. The program limits are $5,500 per year for undergraduate students and $8,000 per year for graduate students, with cumulative limits of $27,500 for undergraduate loans and $60,000 for undergraduate and graduate loans combined</p>

<p>I don’t know if there’s been a change or if this is an error - it used to say $4,000 on their site so maybe Nikki or kelsmom will know. I know Obama wants to make some changes and expand Perkins for 2010 and there’s an interesting article here. One thing I noticed was it says the ave. Perkins loan is now $2,190, which seemed high to me as no school offered my D more that $1K and the rest were in the $400-600 range.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.coheao.org/legis/data/BudgetOutlineModernizeandExpandPerkinsLoans.pdf[/url]”>http://www.coheao.org/legis/data/BudgetOutlineModernizeandExpandPerkinsLoans.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;